Notes and Thoughts on Grocery 2.0

What is it? Social Networking is a structure of links between nodes(ie often people) that can be browsed or searched like a map to help you understand the respective relationships connecting these nodes/people together. LinkedIn, FaceBook, and MySpace are some popular examples.

Here is a good overview video from CommonCraft on Social Networking.

Why is Social Networking important in the Grocery industry?

We all want to understand, engage, and retain our customers better. Consumers increasingly are spending more time on social networking sites and less time using traditional media. A recent UK study found, “This gain in popularity(of Social Networking sites) comes from the expense of other activities and media. The main activities showing a decline in time spent…, watching broadcast television (-12%), reading print (books are -10%, magazines are -8%, newspapers are -7%), visiting other web sites, and playing games. Among teens, the decline is even more pronounced with -32% less time spent on homework/work, -21% less time spent on TV, and -14% less time spent reading books.”

Ok, so I understand that some of my grocery customers and many of my younger customers use social networking sites but how do I engage them?
Here are three things that you can do tomorrow to engage your grocery consumer in the social networking space.

With mobile technology becoming more sophisticated anyone has the ability to shoot videos, take photos and audio recordings and share them on the internet. The public no longer has to rely on mainstream media to report events, instead we can watch it as it really happened - while it happens. The increasing popularity of “citizen journalism” has prompted YouTube to get in on the act as more and more people distribute recordings through the video haring site.

“Elbowing aside the media elite, YouTube wants to grab a seat at the anchor desk with a new channel dubbed “Citizen News.” Harnessing the advantages of the burgeoning citizen journalism movement, YouTube aims to aggregate and capitalize on newsworthy content produced by an increasingly well-equipped user base. An official YouTube channel will give the world’s John and Jane Does a bigger spotlight with which to illuminate stories not picked up by mainstream media….”

Allowing the public to report news is liberating and taking journalism in a direction that has yet to be fully explored. I enjoy the fact that the media will need to be held more accountable for the accuracy of their stories but I am concerned that what the public displays as news could be considerably more biased, not to mention that the more sponsors the “Citizen News” websites acquire the more likely that limitations will be imposed.

“With two giants in their respective fields of old media (CNN) and new (YouTube) supporting the dynamic, up-and-coming realm of citizen journalism, the pitfalls of letting anyone report news beg to be examined. It is certainly a good thing that equipment and communication technologies are getting more advanced, cheaper, and accessible to a much broader worldwide audience. Reducing the news world’s barrier to entry can also be a benefit in the big picture, as Olivia proclaimed in her announcement that “no longer do you have to be a seasoned journalist or a paid commentator to make waves in the news. Everyday citizens are serving as reporters.”

As online video popularity increases in the online world it will be interesting to see where it takes us - which is apparently a VLOG

Read the whole article

Elise